The real offense behind flag burning is the 'thought crime'

[Bucky]

Here's the proposed amendment: The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

As mentioned so often by champions of the flag antidesecration amendment, there are ways of burning the flag that are respectful, hence not truly "desecration" of the flag. The Girl Scouts who respectfully cut up and burn old and used flags are physically destroying it, but they aren't mentally dishonoring it. Some people say that if an American flag ever touches the ground, it must be disposed of properly. Again, such a disposal isn't desecration because it involves respectful, nondesecretory thoughts being processed in your mind. When it comes to this law, it is literally the thought that counts.

Besides, you don't have to burn the flag to desecrate it. You can drag it thru the mud, or use (*ahem*) a sharpie to write graffiti on it, or wrap it around Howard Stern's body parts. The "crime" of desecration is in fact a thought crime. It's not what you do, it's what you think you're saying when you do what you're doing--or more to the point, what the judge and jury decide that you think--when you do it.

Of course Mr Bush got away with this stunt because the flag in question actually has 49 stars and one circle. Really. Well, that's their story and they're stickin' to it. If I took that same not-quite-American-flag that the president gang-tagged and burned it, don't tell me I wouldn't be prosecuted under a flag desecration law. Assuming I did a thorough enough job with the burning part, I just don't think my defense of "but one of those pentagrams was really a circle" would mean yankee doodly squat to the US Marshals when they bust me.

Complicated? Hell yes. We can quibble endlessly about what a flag is and what it ain't. For those of us who believe in limited government, any reasonable application of an anti-desecration law leads to a slippery slope slope debate about the definition of "flag" by which the law quickly becomes meaningless. But it gets worse. For those--like the current crop of neocons--who believe in government with a pretty wide scope of powers for digging into peoples' personal lives, such a law creates an opposite slippery slope by which any use of the flag can be twisted to mean a desecration of it, so long as the person so using that flag believes in a different policy than they do.

When skinheads and neonazis use the flag to preach race hatred and genocide and the destruction of American liberty, is that not a physical desecration of the banner that our forefathers fought under? Just by waving Old Glory next to their noxious swastikas, they are defiling what America means. What about those who couple the American flag next to a flag that represents rebellion against American democracy and the subjugation of born Americans? What about those who replace the 50 stars of the American flag with a big green ecology E? Or with little Gestapo bolts? Or the corporate America parody flag? Don't tell me those aren't examples of defacing the flag!





Or what about those who use the flag to sell cars and candy and cheap plastic trinkets (mostly made by slave labor in China and Vietnam)? Is there any way you could defile our flag more than to use it to financially remunerate those who oppress their own people?

What if I eat a flag and then poop it out? Who could say that's not desecration? Am I stretching my argument too far? Friends, wait until the lawyers get ahold of the antidesecration amendment.

Let's say someone draws a picture of the American flag and burns that... is that desecration? No? Well, let's say you draw the picture on both sides of the paper and stick it on a pole--is it an American flag then? Do the two images have to have the blue star fields on matching sides for it to be a flag? Or does a flag have to be sewn to be a flag? What about those cheap 8 inch flags your neighborhood association plants in your yard on Flag Day? Those are kinda sewn. But the distinct design (which actually makes it an American flag protected by this amendment) isn't sewn on; it's printed by machine onto cheap white polyester rectangle of fabric in China. Is that a real flag? If I burn it, am I desecrating the flag or am I protesting the desecration of the American flag by having communist slave labor drones used to create it? At what point can I safely prosecute someone for burning it?

Or let's assume a less strict interpretation of what a flag is. Say that I take a "Fourth of July Blowout" promotional flyer that has Old Glory images on it and burn that. Is that flag desecration? What if I burn it while thinking "Gee, I really hate America"? At what point is it legally desecration as opposed to, say, aesthetic desecration? I assume the flag doesn't need to have the exact 19 by 10 proportions required by the United States Code. A flag that's too long or too short or one which erroneously has 11 stripes ought to be protected under this law. What about a pennant-shaped American flag---is that burnable? Can I wear a shirt with an American flag motif? What if I cut up an American flag and re-sew it into a shirt? I assume it's okay, so long as I do so in support of America. I just can't then get it dirty while criticizing American governmental policies, because that is de jure desecration. That's logical, right?

For that matter, can I ever wash that shirt? Use too much detergent and those colors will, in fact, run!

But, of course, these last arguments won't wash (so to speak). If I'm not intending to defile an actual flag for the actual purposes that the law envisions when it outlaws desecration, then I should be safe. All I gotta do is tell the flag cops "I burned that flag because I loved it. I burned that flag because I wanted to save it. You know, like Fallujah." I say that and the judge is bound to let me walk. Just like the Girl Scout with her scissors and her matches and her respectful ceremony, I'm thinking the right thoughts when I alter the flag with whatever ceremony I choose to practice.

The crux of the issue is not what one does, but what one thinks. This simple little constitutional amendment, of course, is Big Brother's foot into door to your mind. Burn the flag thinking the right thoughts, it's okay. Burn it thinking the wrong thoughts, it's a crime. Strict constructionists should have no problem setting up these regulations, of course. There's nothing in the Bill of Rights that says the government doesn't have the right to regulate your thoughts.

[chaplainM]

1. If a deceased person had a flag tattoo...

...will his family be prevented from cremating his remains?

[porphyrian]

2. Congress should supply all the flags, then. - n/t